Alum Roof

Alum Root, Coral bells (Heuchera) - This group of hardy perennials has seen lots of attention from breeders in recent years. Once regarded as rather old fashioned, the traditional garden Coral bells has panicles of diminutive pink to red-orange flowers. Now a host of cultivars are available in a huge variety of leaf colors and forms. There are around 36 species of Heuchera native to North America, some more showy than others. Heuchera americana and H. sanguinea are the most commonly grown. Cultivated Heucheras do best in evenly moist, well-drained soil with lots of organic matter. They are intolerant of heavy clay soils. Partial shade and division every three years will help insure the longevity of your plants.

Heuchera are easily grown from seed. Sow in trays indoors in late winter, or directly in the garden once the soil has warmed. Plants may be increased by division in autumn, or rhizome cuttings rooted in heat during spring.

Most Heuchera have a mounded form and grow 12-24 inches tall. One very popular cultivar is H. 'Palace Purple' which has deep purple leaves and reddish-purple stalks with white flowers in late spring. When grown in sun, the leaves turn a bronze color. Other cultivars feature leaves that are chartreuse, ruffed, silver veined or chocolate colored. Some have been selected for larger flowers as well. Both the leaves and flowers are good in cut flower arrangements.

In the landscape Heuchera are useful in the woodland garden, as an edging plant in front of shrubs or taller perennials, or as an accent in perennial borders. They are hardy in USDA zones (3)4-9.

The following species and their hybrids are now in cultivation:—

Related Flowers

Sanguinea x zabelana

sanguinea x zabelana (Heuchera Flambeau) - A pretty garden seedling of good color, with numerous stems of red flowers 2 feet high, and closely clustered as in H. zabelana.

Micrantha x sanguinea

micrantha x sanguinea (Heuchera Gracillima) - Bears cloudy pink heads like a wreath of mist seen in the dim perspective of a shady border. Leaf like that of micrantha.

Heuchera Hispida

Heuchera hispida Syn. H. Richardsonii.- This plant is valued most for its leaves which are marked with rich brown zones and turn bronze and crimson towards autumn. Being evergreen, they are good for cutting, or as edging and tufts in the rock garden. The variety 'macrophylla' has larger leaves.

Brizoides x sanguinea

brizoides x sanguinea (Heuchera Lucifer) - A good and vigorous plant of 3 feet, and a real gain, being easy to grow, with the bronze leaf-tints of brizoides and coral-red flowers, smaller than in that kind, very abundant, and like it, produced twice in the season.

Micrantha rosea x sanguinea

micrantha rosea x sanguinea (Heuchera Rosamundi) - The best hybrid yet raised, with tall branched stems of rosy flowers, intermediate in size between those of gracillima and sanguinea. It is of good constitution and pretty for cutting.

Heuchera Sanguinea

Heuchera Sanguinea - The prettiest of the wild kinds. There are several varieties in cultivation, but none of them show much improvement in constitution; they are grandiflora robusta, with larger flowers of a paler pink; splendens, with larger and darker flowers, the best of all in color; rosea, also with pale flowers; and alba, the so-called white form, though the flowers are only an uncertain greenish-grey, turning pink with exposure.